Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for only $39.99!

[PanterHZ]

To me it seems like Windows 8 will turn out to be the new Windows ME, and because of this upgrade offer, I belive Microsoft have their doubts as well.

The Win9x start menu was one of the things Microsoft really did a good job with, but of course they had to mess it up with the later versions of Windows. Launching applications from a small menu by using only two mouse-clicks was of course way too easy, so they had to find ways to make this more ackward for the user.

Guess I will be sticking with Vista for as long as I can, since it's the last Windows version where it's still possible to get the classic start menu, and I will not upgrade to Win8 even if I got payed to do so.

Mark my words, Windows 8 will fail considerably on the desktop market, so Microsoft will be forced to either make an update which brings back the start menu, or they will rush out the next Windows version where it will be re-implemented there instead.
Everybody I have talked to are sceptical to Windows 8, and even my father have heard rumors about 8 being no good.

PS! Sorry about being on-topic folks :-)

[PanterHZ]

As for Windows 8 being the next ME that's just  insanity. ME was junk, blue screens and crashing etc. Windows 8 is  stable, quicker than my Windows 7 install and the new start screen is  step in the right direction.

I didn't mean to imply that Windows 8 is the same kind of crap like ME  was, but I'm convinced that lots of people in the future will look at 8  with the same type of "disgust" as many do with ME today.

Times are changing. The start menu has been around  for along time. There will be the usual complaints and arguments just  like when Windows 95 hit the scene but after a year or so it will calm  down.

Yes precisely, the start menu has been around for a long time, and  it is what most people are used to. It has actually been the standard  way of launching stuff in Windows for more than ten years, and to think  that everybody all of the sudden will embrace such a drastic change of  things is a bit too optimistic in my opinion. For the next couple of  years, people will have the choice of either Windows 7 or 8 when bying a  new pc, and I belive that most folks will choose 7, even if 8 is  cheaper.

But people will of course eventually adopt to the new  standards when they no longer have any choice. That is unless Microsoft  come to their senses and realize exactly what it was that made XP so  popular.

Just to be clear, I'm talking about the desktop market here, the tablet market may be different.

Had to reply to this Windows 7 does have the classic start menu. Plenty of guides on how...

http://win7vista.com/index.php?topic=1414.0

http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/3154-classic-start-menu-available.html#post41112

Vista was a bad OS until service pack 1 was released. However 7 was a huge improvement well worth the upgrade.

I didn't know that, maybe there's hope for Windows 7 after all

Yes  there certainly was a lot of problems with Vista in the beginning,  where it was released too early, had a lot of driver compability issues  and was sold with pc's that had too weak hardware to run it effectively.  But now I think it's quite a decent OS (for being Windows), and I can't  picture myself going back to XP. The much more robust explorer in Vista  is just one of the reasons why this isn't an option.

One of the  things I REALLY like about Windows 7 is that upon shutting it down, the  user gets the option of forcing applications to quit when they refuse to  do so themselves. This instead of waiting forever for the pc to shut down.

[PanterHZ]

Funny, but I don' find that much difference between 98 and ME, except that ME has more drivers built in and requires the CD less often when adding hardware.

Then again, people gave Vista a bad rap, and it might deserve it more in that it is more crash prone then its predecessor (ME is not, in fact its pretty much a polished version of '98).

I've been using Windows since version 3.0 and each time a new version comes out there's always some part of the market that dislikes the new version. Then, eventually, enough people adopt it (or wait) that it becomes a hit (or a miss).

A lot of software for Windows 9x (especially games) simply refused to work with ME, while the same software could be made to work with XP by configuring the compatibility settings. All of this left ME stuck in the middle, where it's usefulness got seriously limited.

What I find funny is how quickly some people forget the past. Because what happened when Vista was launched, is exactly what happened when XP was launched as well. As a matter of fact, the issues with no longer working drivers was much worse with the switch from 98 to XP.

[PanterHZ]

If you aren't pirating it, you get the one that came on your purchase disk?  That may not be current or service packed.

EDIT: Iggy beat me to it

Personally I install Windows XP on pc's by using a XP CD with SP3 included, and even though I downloaded it from a torrent site, I don't consider this to be piracy since I still need genuine license keys for installing.

[PanterHZ]

I have done that as well, however I worry that those isos are rootkitted.

Yes it is always a good idea to be a bit careful with stuff like this. The iso I use does not include any kind of cracks, and it was only downloaded after reading all comments that it got on the site where I found it.